THE ANT-LION 267 



beneath which you found it. There at your leisure 

 you can watch it as it hollows out its funnel, a pit- 

 fall for catching ants. You will see it put into prac- 

 tice the cunning wiles of an ambushed hunter. 



"Let us for a moment stand as onlookers, men- 

 tally at least, while this work goes forward. Placed 

 on a bed of sand and restored from its former dis- 

 may, the ant-lion proceeds to plunge its belly half- 

 way into the soil; then, with this substitute for a 

 plowshare, and always moving backward, it draws a 

 circular furrow. Returning to its starting-point it 

 draws a second furrow close to the first, then a third 

 next to the second, and so on with a great many more, 

 each one of smaller circumference than the preced- 

 ing, so that they all together form a spiral which con- 

 stantly approaches the center; and as this living 

 plow is driven deeper and deeper at each circuit, and 

 throws outward the soil that it turns up, the final 

 result is a funnel of about two inches in diameter and 

 somewhat less in depth. There you have the ant- 

 lion's trap, the treacherous pitfall in which the ants 

 are caught. 



"Of course the huntsman employing such a device 

 as this must himself keep well out of sight. The ant- 

 lion is too well versed in its art to violate this ele- 

 mentary principle. It crouches down under the sand 

 at the lowest point of the upturned funnel, with only 

 its nippers showing, and these are pressed close to 

 the ground, but wide open and ready to seize any 

 luckless ant that may chance to tumble down the in- 

 clins. Although the horrible pincers are exposed, 



